WHEN BOOKS WENT to WAR: THE STORIES THAT HELPED US WIN WORLD WAR II (Audiobook) by Molly Guptill Manning




Published by Blackstone Audio in 2014.
Read by Bernadette Dunne
Duration: 6 hours, 49 minutes.
Unabridged.

When Books Went to War looks at the deliberate effort by the government of the United States to put books in the hands of its soldiers as they went off to fight in World War II. 

There were multiple reasons behind this idea. The first was simple: Reading books is a practical way to help soldiers pass the time. "Hurry up and wait" is a common refrain from soldiers of all eras and books helped fill the time.

Another reason was to remind the soldiers of what they were fighting for. Being on the front has a way of making life seem cheap and disposable, but reading a good story might help keep soldiers attached to the good things from back home. This may seem corny, but so many letters from the soldiers and sailors were written to the authors of these books that emphasized this very point.

Betty Smith, the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn wrote and spoke about all of the letters she got from soldiers that told them how her book reminded them of their home in any big city in America - Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, or wherever. She said she received 10 times more mail from soldiers than from civilians. 

One of the most important reasons to put books in the hands of soldiers was that being anti-book was a trait of the Nazis. They were infamous for holding massive book burnings and emptying libraries of books they disagreed with. The American program to put books in the hands of soldiers was the opposite - and it was intentionally designed to be that way. The bad guys take books away from you - the good guys want you to read and think for yourself and give you books to do just that.

Note: This philosophy contrasts strongly with the Trump Adminsitration's choice to ban nearly 400 books from the libraries of the various military academies. For example, here is an article from April of 2025 about 385 books banned from the Naval Academy. 

These books were designed to be as small and lightweight as possible. They were intended to go along with a soldier no matter where he went. The print was tiny, the margins were almost non-existent and they were usually stapled together. They could slide into a pack, a pocket, or in the nooks and crannies of any vehicle. They could bend to the counters of a pack.

Men read and re-read them. When books were handed out, men would be strategic about their choices in order to guarantee a wide variety of reading choices. Men from different units traded and some units created portable libraries in crates that went right along with the unit no matter where they went. Men were assigned to be the caretakers of the books.

Their was a lot of debate about the books they picked. They weren't policed too much when it came to content. Southerners were irritated at books that were critical of their Jim Crow laws. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath made the cut and it is hardly politically conservative. Some were strictly educational - books that explained science or math or philosophy. A great many were Westerns and there were a number of murder mysteries. By the time it was over, the U.S. government had printed 1,225 different titles and had given away 122 million books to its armed forces for free!

Here is a list of every book they printed.

This audiobook was interesting from beginning to end. As a book lover, it was inspiring to hear about men reading to their buddies in foxholes and men discovering that they actually liked reading. As a person that always has a book on hand, I understood completely.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts over the last 30 days

HELL BENT: HOW the FEAR of HELL HOLDS CHRISTIANS BACK from a SPIRITUALITY of LOVE by Brian Recker

Image
Published by Penguin Audio in 2025. Read by the author, Brian Recker. Duration: 6 hours, 40 minutes. Unabridged.   My cousin reviewed Hell Bent on Goodreads and his review made me very excited to read it as well.  I just re-read that review and I am still excited to read the book he described. The actual book is solid, but took a long time to get going and seemed like it was put together in an odd way - almost backwards and I think that diluted its strength. Recker starts with a lengthy discussion of what happens if you fall out of your tribe's accepted truths. In this case, his tribe is American Evangelical Christianity, but you may have had a similar falling out with another group. For example, I have had a falling out with a lot of friends and family because I left my political tribe (I am a never-Trump Republican.) This part was simply too long for me. I was far more interested in the actual discussion about the relative strengths and weaknesses of those that argue in fav...
Read more

MILDRED (short story) (kindle) by Sean Ryan O'Reilly

Image
Published in 2014 by RSO Publications. The short story Mildred has a tone and plot that is reminiscent of a Stephen King story. Certainly, O'Reilly could have stretched this 42 page short story (novelette) out a bit more like Stephen King would have, adding much more detail but not have really adding much to the story itself.  Instead, O'Reilly goes for a much quicker, more minimalist approach, letting the reader try to figure out what is going on while a creepy vibe and sense of dread build. The story begins with a family fight between an aunt who is a realtor (Denise) and her niece (Josephine). It turns out that the aunt has convinced her niece to invest in a shady business deal and Josephine has decided to cash out by just taking one of her aunt's homes. This home is crammed full of consumer products. Josephine clears out a space and sets up housekeeping. When she discovers the diary of the former owner of the house she learns that her aunt ...
Read more

THE PRICE of HONEY (Deadly Ambition Collection #1) by Liane Moriarty

Image
Published by Amazon Original Stories in 2026. Book 1 of the Deadly Ambition Series. Synopsis The Deadly Ambition Series is a collection of six short stories about people who push too far in pursuit of their ambitions and reap the tragic rewards.  Honey Becket is the fourth wife of a naracistic tech billionaire. Technically, she is his widow. The story begins with Honey Becket riding in an Uber on the way to her husband's elaborately staged funeral.  This is a near future sci-fi story - there is discussion about how rare it is that the Uber driver is an actual person and not a self-driving car. Artificial Intelligence is clearly a much larger part of day to day life than it is in early 2026.  Honey Becket is not against technology, but she still enjoys doing things for herself. When she gets to the funeral, she goes against the plan and invites the other three ex-wives to sit with her up front. And that's when things get interesting... My Review What I like best about thi...
Read more

STUDY HALL of JUSTICE (DC COMICS: SECRET HERO SOCIETY #1) by Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen

Image
Published by Scholastic in 2016. Study Hall of Justice is a YA graphic novel that is a re-imagining of the DC universe with a comic twist.  Synopsis Imagine a Hogwarts-type school where only children with special talents are invited. Young Bruce Wayne suspects that there is more going on in the school than meets the eye. The teachers are odd, not only quirky, but sometimes malicious - increasingly so. Bruce starts to investigate, sometimes wearing a special costume to hide in the shadows, he begins to suspect that there is a malevolent figure running the school. He also encounters two other students who are looking into the school leadership - Clark Kent and Diana Prince. My Review While this book is aimed at middle schoolers, adult super fans of DC Comics will appreciate the easter eggs that abound. For example, Bruce Wayne's locker has shark repellent (from the 1960's Adam West movie) and movie stills from The Gray Ghost, a movie that inspires young Bruce Wayne to create his...
Read more

NPR AMERICAN CHRONICLES: WORLD WAR I (audiobook) by NPR

Image
Multicast performance Duration: 3 hours, 25 minutes National Public Radio (NPR) has gone through its archives and pulled out almost thirty stories about World War I in honor of the 100th anniversary of the start of the war. The stories include interviews with soldiers and historians and various authors.  World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973) in his Spad plane in October of 1918. Topics include a look at pre-World War I Europe, a look at the creator of the  Sopwith Camel, discussions of several battles, hand-created masks for men whose faces were damaged in the war, a mini-biography of America's famed flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, a look at the post-war Bonus Army during the Great Depression and audio visits to several World War I museums, including one that recognizes Herbert Hoover's efforts to feed Belgium during the war (mostly forgotten in America). The audio quality of all of these stories is excellent since they were all originally broadcast o...
Read more

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman

Image
Great book, great movie, great story no matter the format! Originally published in 1973. The author,  William Goldman I wasn't even aware that The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure was even a book until I was looking through the special features on my DVD and they were speaking of the difficulties they had bringing the book to the big screen. Once I found out about the book I just had to get it! So, is it better than the movie? While I certainly enjoyed the background information on Fezzik and Inigo, this is one of the first books that I can honestly say is better as a movie. Notice, that I have given this book 5 stars, so we are distinguishing between very good and very, very good here. Still, the movie is a further abridgment of S. Morgenstern's classic tale (wink, wink) that makes the story even stronger. My edition had a wonderful new introduction the recounted some of the struggles and joys in mak...
Read more

ILLEGAL (graphic novel) Written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. Illustrated by Giovanni Rigano.

Image
  Published in 2018 by Sourcebooks Young Readers. Illegal is the fictional story of two young brothers from Ghana: Ebo and Kwame. While it is fictional, it is based on lots and lots of true stories. Most Americans are very aware that immigrants/refugees are fleeing from their native countries and arriving at the border of the United States and are not aware that a similar thing is happening in Europe.  Europe has a similar refugee/immigrant situation. People are fleeing from the wars in Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. There are also refugees fleeing the brutal poverty and political situations in sub-Saharan Africa. Like in the United States, these immigrants/refugees depend on very shady people to move them closer to their goals. In this story, two young brothers named Ebo and Kwame live in a village in Ghana. They are orphaned and living with a useless, drunken uncle. They have an older sister that has already crossed the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to look for work but...
Read more

LOOKING for ALASKA (audiobook) by John Green

Image
  Originally published in 2005. Audible audiobook edition published in 2019. Read by Wil Wheaton Duration: 6 hours, 40 minutes. Unabridged. Set in a boarding school in rural Alabama, this book features a diverse group of friends who are trying to figure out the big things in life - where to get cigarettes, where to get booze, where to get fireworks, the meaning of life, where to find a girl or a boy, how to hide your violations from the adults at the school and what is going to be the next big prank. Miles Halter is the new kid at school and he is desperately in love (like a lot of young men) with the lively and enigmatic Alaska Young. Alaska is as unique as her name. She is a fervent defender of women's rights, she smokes and drinks whenever possible, she is an A student and yet she insists on carving her own way. The book follows this group as they go through Miles' first year at the school, all the while counting down to something as indicated by the chapter titles... Wil Wh...
Read more

WOLF PACK (Joe Pickett #19)(audiobook) by C.J. Box

Image
  Published in 2019 by Recorded Books. Read by David Chandler. Duration: 9 hours, 51 minutes. Unabridged. Synopsis: Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is back on the job and glad to be doing the mundane work of a game warden once again. The game warden in the district next to his reaches out and tells him about a fancy drone she has spotted. The drone is being used to drive winter-weakened deer and elk into groups and then panic them into stampedes, killing and maiming several of them. Of course, this is a violation of Wyoming law. But, when they go to track down the owner, they find that they are stymied everywhere they look. Once they find the owner, it turns out that they wish they hadn't found what they are looking for... Review: This is a pretty engrossing thriller with lots of action. But... Huge chunks of this book is told from the perspective of characters that are guests in this series. I don't know exactly what percentage, but it felt like Joe Pickett was mostly a guest ...
Read more

OF BOYS and MEN: WHY the MODERN MALE IS STRUGGLING, WHY IT MATTERS, and WHAT to DO ABOUT IT (audiobook) by Richard V. Reeves

Image
Published in September of 2022 by Blackstone Publishing. Read by the author, Richard V. Reeves. Duration: 6 hours, 55 minutes. Unabridged. Men, as a group, are struggling in today's economy. The average male's income has falling in inflation-adjusted terms, especially so when you factor out upper class and upper middle class men. Men are more likely to be arrested, be addicts, be homeless, and more likely to succeed at killing themselves. Boys are struggling in today's educational system. They are far more likely to be suspended, expelled or placed in a special education program. They are far less likely to graduate from high school. They far less likely to attempt any sort of post-secondary education (a majority of all college students are female) or training and far less likely to complete that training or degree - even in the rare situations where the post-secondary training and/or education are essentially free. Reeves, an economist with the Brookings Institutions, sees...
Read more